Dance/USA Showcase at the MCA Stage | Photo gallery

Photos by Nathan Keay

Dance/USA Showcase I at the MCA | Photo gallery

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  Tell Me a Story…Nostalgia in the Digital Age, by the Knot (Heather Hartley and Casey Murtaugh)

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  Tell Me a Story…Nostalgia in the Digital Age, by the Knot (Heather Hartley and Casey Murtaugh)

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  The Dance COLEctive performs Pull Taut, choreographed by Margi Cole

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  The Dance COLEctive performs Pull Taut, choreographed by Margi Cole

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  Zoltán Katona, left, and Mónica Cervantes of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Toda Una Vida

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  Mónica Cervantes, left, and Zoltán Katona of Luna Negra Dance Theater in Toda Una Vida

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  Julia Rae Antonick, Jonathan Meyer and Joseph St. Charles, from left, perform Twice

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  Joseph St. Charles, Julia Rae Antonick and Jonathan Meyer, from left, perform Twice

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  Molly Shanahan, Benjamin Law and Jessica Marasa, from left, in Sharks Before Drowning

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  Juli Farley, Molly Shanahan, Benjamin Law and Jessica Marasa, from left, in Sharks Before Drowning

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  Jessica Marasa, left, and Juli Farley in Sharks Before Drowning

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  Lucky Plush Productions’ Meghann Wilkinson, Julia Rhoads, Kim Larimore Goldman and Timothy Heck, from left, in Memory Mash

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  Julia Rhoads, center, in Memory Mash

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  Louis James Jackson, left, and Joseph Kudra of DanceWorks Chicago in Nocturnal Sense, choreographed by James Gregg

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  Steffi Cheong, left, and Joseph Kudra in Nocturnal Sense

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  Jeremy Blair performs in Hati-Hati by Nana Shineflug for the Chicago Moving Company

   

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  Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Laura Halm in Alejandro Cerrudo’s Blanco

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  Babu Atiba of Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago in Initiates of Bagatae: Sorsone

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  Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago performs Initiates of Bagatae: Sorsone, choreographed by Mustapha Bangoura

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  Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago performs Initiates of Bagatae: Sorsone

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Tell Me a Story…Nostalgia in the Digital Age, by the Knot (Heather Hartley and Casey Murtaugh)

In a recent issue of TOC, I brayed in disappointment that Chicago doesn’t have a comprehensive dance festival. Two consecutive showcases last week, during Dance/USA’s annual conference at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, came close to what that might look like.

On July 15, two independent artists and 11 companies from Chicago performed at the Dance Center of Columbia College, and the night before, 11 other local groups took the MCA Stage. Ballet, ballroom, Bharatanatyam, breaking and other forms popular here weren’t represented but, overall, the six hours of dance gave those visiting Chicago for the conference a pretty good idea of the diversity of movement and talent in a rapidly expanding scene.

Unsurprisingly, Lucky Plush Productions’ reference-filled Memory Mash was a hit with the first showcase’s industry crowd. A frenetic, mercurial duet from Luna Negra director Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s Toda Una Vida benefited over its Harris premiere from the intimacy of the space, as did Alejandro Cerrudo’s Blanco, a women’s quartet for Hubbard Street. Julia Rae Antonick, Jonathan Meyer and composer Joseph St. Charles’s new work, Twice, showed that team’s impressive run of collaborations continuing, and Muntu Dance Theatre brought down the house, per usual, with an all-male finale.

Highlights during the Dance Center program included Hubbard Street 2’s Alice Klock and newly promoted main company member David Schultz in Andrea Miller’s I Can See Myself in Your Pupil, Paul Christiano’s ADHDivas for Chicago Dance Crash, a tap sextet performed by Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s BAM! ensemble (including founder Lane Alexander), and Francisco Aviña in WHAM OF SAM, for Ron De Jesús Dance.